Welcome...and very nicely done!

"Good evening, My Lord," Han said following the nighttime ritual of hundreds of years.

Master Theon slides gracefully from the sapphire-blue silk bedding to stand at the edge of the Timna armored casket, his movements are smooth and of a single, fluid grace. Pale skin hissed softly against the cotton cloth lining as Han helps him into the beautifully worked day robe. Han pulls it closed, ties it at the waist and then moves around Theon, straightening and smoothing the robe, his hands running over the complex needle work of the fine garment with practiced easy.

The scenes depicted on the robe are bloody and cast a stark contrast to the sky-blue colour of the material the robe is made from; blood red, dark wine, and magentas dominated the images with silver and gold edging and trim. The detail imagery was a thing of transcendent skill but the subject matter would have turned the stomach of many.

Having finished with setting the robe, Han steps to the small table against the wall as the casket retracted into the alcove and secured itself. He lifts the silver plater with the single, old Venetian tradition glass on it. The glass is filled with a red fluid and its outer surface is covered in handed painted flowers and plants that would be at home in a summer field at noon.

Han steps back to Theon to present the glass. The liquid in it barely reacting to his movement.

Theon takes the glass and drinks. The blood is body temperature and slides down easily after the long day of sleep.

Finishing it, Theon returns the glass to the plater. Han, in turn, returns it and the plater to the table. Theon begins to walk toward and out the only door in the room.

The room was designed to be a grand piece of art but also to protect Master Theon from those things that are anathema to or might threaten the life of a vampire. A thick, Indian rug covers the floor to within a few feet of the walls. Around the room, set quite tastefully to make the room feel 'lived in', are a few pieces of furniture made from night dark Oak. Cloth covers are set across the flat surfaces and are all sky-blue with silver trim. The walls are covered in a powder-blue wallpaper that has depicted on it a forest of willowy, white trees with speckled black bark under a canopy of light green leaves. The image seems to have a depth to it, as it extending into illusionary distance. Each alcove has a security casket of identical make and model to the one Master Theon just stepped out of. Each on armatures that allowed the casket to be extended into the room for use.

Even the mechanism of the caskets are finely crafted and, while a brass coloured metal, did not seem out of place in terms of the rest of the room. The room is quite large , big enough that if all three caskets were extended, a person standing in the middle of the room could touch them all without extending their arms very much.

The room radiates luxury but had been designed for security. No windows to allow sunlight in or an intruder to use to gain entry to it. The room is located under Master Theon's main house with surveillance and defensive measures built into recesses or hidden away that can respond in an instant to any threat as needed. Those same devices extended up into the house proper and are monitored twenty-four/seven by bonded members of the household staff. Only Master Theon and Han, however, can enter the hallway leading to this room without being met lethal force.

In the words of the twentieth century security expert whom had designed the systems, "Master Theon owns anyone who enters his house."

This does not distract from the style displayed however. The entire house radiates wealth, power, and age. Each room is a masterpiece of design, function, and elegance married to a deep love of history. The hallways are reminiscent of an imperial palace of the sixteenth century; tall, long, and well lite. Paintings of a rare pedigree and furnishings of master craftsmen filled every corner of Master Theon's household.

All of this contained in a two block rectangle of the most populous city in the world.

Having walked through the hallway, up stairs, and then into the sitting room, Theon sits and picks up the day's newspaper. It and another Venetian glass of red liquid sits waiting for him on the table in front of Theon. On the paper, once again, is news of the city's protector and the drop in crime as told from the reports over the last month. Citizens are all applauding the hero who is cleaning up the streets of the city where the police are unable or unwilling too.

"Han, what do you think of this idea of me as a protector?" His voice is the controlled alto of a trained singer; strong, measured, modulated.

Theon knew that Han would be ready to serve him as he seemingly spoke to the empty air. He did not even have to turn to know that his servant would be standing by the largest door to this room. Not even if they were behind him to know that Han was there.

"You have ever protected your bloodline, Sir" Han nodded even as he spoke those words with respect. By that statement he meant any whom had been turned to the life of service to the Master.

"Yes, yes...but what do you think?" Theon asks with the tone of an pampered aristocrat, pressing the matter. Sometime Han needs a push to reply beyond the scope of Master/servant expectations.

Han did not even hesitated before replaying.

"Sir, if I may, does the farmer care for the opinions of his cattle?" Han is every and always the pragmatist.

Master Theon, a predator older than most countries, let alone the city he finds himself in in this century, smiles without humor. A smile that exposes the sharp, white teeth that lightly gleaming as he salivates at the thought of tonight's hunt.

"Indeed," he says.

"Indeed."

It was on Holy Saturday when my Grandmother Maite had been, what I would call anyway, cranky and out of sorts even for her. For some reason, she was not happy with the number of crows she was seeing in the neighborhood, not that I had seen any. She also said things like the spirits are angry, or the Named are hidden. Crazy stuff to me. On top of that she said she felt in her bones that something was going to happen...something bad.

It became the running theme when anyone talked to her.

I hated it when she talks like that, that amorphous 'something bad' is going to happen. I love my Abuela but she is very old school, a mix of Catholic religion and Native Chilean mysticism, and that always make me roll my eyes when she hits me with those things.

I haven't been to church in years and I have never lived in Ancud, the city our Family is from, let alone even been to Chile. I know that we come from there, as well as many of the families around us, but it never really had been something that I had strong ties to beyond knowing it was our background and that we still observe some of those traditions.

Don't get me wrong, I love some of them traditions...like the one where we throw our shoes out to see what the year will bring. Or like these big dinners., always so much good food to eat...but that is about it for me.

It really had went south when, right before the Big Meal, the last of the guests had arrived. Specifically, me and Chloé.

This big dinner had been planned for weeks. Neighbors and family had all been invited to spend the day together, help ("If you want to", my Mom always says) fix a big dinner, and celebrate the end of the Holy Week. You could come and go all day as you wanted but dinner was a 'must' for everyone involved. Mom had just said, "Be there!" to me as I had left to go pick up Chloé.

Late was also not OK!

My girlfriend, Chloé was invited because I had been dating her for a while now and the rest of the Family wanted to met her. With the exception for my sisters, none of the Family had met her even though I had been dating her for more that six months. She lived in San Fernando and I spent most of my free time over there rather than make her come over here.

Invited is really the wrong word. My Mom told me to make sure Chloé came with me; no ifs, ands, or buts this time. She was important to me and so she was to the Family as well. This is a big deal, this dinner for the Family, an important gathering and not to be missed by anyone who is truly part of the Family, she had said.

Not a big surprise to me. She always treated ever girl I dated as "The One I Am Going To Marry".

e are celebrating Holy Saturday, nd we are honouring the traditions of community with our neighbors, Mom was not going to let it go how big a deal this meal was.

My mother and father were having the dinner at our house, as they had for years, and had invited all the Family to come if they could. Many of the neighbors had also been invited and were already there as dinner approached. Some were still going in and out of our house, shuttling food from their houses to Mom and Dad's as I walked up with Chloé.

I had parked two blocks away...parking sucks in this neighborhood generally and the party was making it just that much worst.

Chloé and I were holding hands chatting about the different neighbors that were going to be there. Well, about the neighbors that were not going to be there more specifically. It was fun for me to share stories about the neighbors we don't like or things they do that are just silly or stupid.

Like the time the Álvarez's had had the police show up because Mr. Álvarez's girlfriend had shown up at the house...that had been a fight to watch.

<chuckle> Well, maybe only for me. Chloé has become a bit quieter as we approached the house. Nerves, I guess.

The front room, which is the biggest room in the house, had been converted to a dinning room for today's meal. In the window I see the tables and chairs with my Family and friends still putting out dishes of food and setting up glasses and plates. The big screen TV is showing pictures of the Vatican and statues of the Saints in an endless montage setup for the holiday.

We walked through the open door and I let everyone know we are there.

"Hey, everyone! I would like you to meet Chloé...Chloé, my Family..."

And Grandmother started screaming, "¡Kalku! ¡Kalku! ¡Oh! ¡Dios mio es el Malvado! ¡Una Kalku!" and waving her hands in warding signs at Chloé.

Suddenly people were looking around trying to figure out what is happening: at me, at Chiloé, and Grandma. Some were even looking out the window for the crows that had suddenly become very noisy for some reason. The crows outside could be heard cawing like they were on the house or just outside the door...I had not even seen them as we came up to the house. Their caws seemed very loud to me and we were inside.

But I looked over at Chloé as she is squeezes my hand painfully hard.

Are her eyes black?

&#x200B;

&#x200B;

Kalku: A Chiloe and Mapuche mythological sorcerer who controls crows and contains dark magic and negative powers.

The robed man tried to get the dragon's attention as it continued it's rant in front of the castle. He knows that the dragon had seen him as its flaming breath no longer threatened the gate to the castle or him as he stands outside of one of the few ways into it.

"Woah, woah, woah...I am sorry but I think you don't understand the situation here, my good dragon," the small man in brown robes, a leather belt, and matching boots said in response to the dragon's statement. On his hip hung a small metal orb of silver and several chains of beads that ran a riot of colors. He holds his hands up in front of him and acts very defensive in response to the roaring declaration the dragon had just made.

They stood facing each other on the dirt cart path that lead up to and into the castle proper, just a few cart lengths outside the castle's main gate. From the castle walls, many people are hiding and trying to watching the conversation between the two of them as it goes on. There were even a few brave souls with bows and arrows pointed at the dragon from cover.

"I can understand your concern for them but, really, you must understand our dilemma. We just can not understand this course of action you seem to be trying to impose on us." He began. He looked over his shoulder back at the castle while waving a hand in their direction.

"You see, there are several arguments to be had here as to why you should not do this." He smiled up at the dragon's toothy face with warm friendship practically oozing out of him. "First, what about the dragon's that the dwarves have captive? Aren't they a greater priority than some simply humans that live in your caves? Shouldn't you all be doing something about that?"

The dragon comment had got its attention.

The dragon, which had been rearing up it's full height ranting at the castle just minutes before was now turning its head to the man and dropped to all fours. Until the man had come out one of the small door of the gate, the dragon had been making a terrible noise outside the gate for quite a while. It had even been throwing torrents for flame against the walls of the castle in punctuation of it's threats. It kept yelling for it cave people held in the castle right up until the man had finally got it attention.

"Secondly, we simply can not afford the cost of fixing our castle. We are here in the borderlands, trying to survive. As you can see while the castle is fairly strong we have spent far more of our funds on trying to expand the field to support this generation's children."

He tilted his head to the dragon as if sharing a secret. "You see," his voice lowered as if he was trying to speak only to the dragon. "We had a lot of indoor time, if you know what I mean, this last winter. It has us a bit concerned as you can imagine." He had actually winked as he said indoor time.

He straightened, "We just can't spend our little money on such things as repairs right now."

Something touched the dragon's expression as if it was actually embarrassed by what the frankly speaking man was saying to it. An expression that everyone watching saw and caused a bit of a murmur to pass through them.

"Add to that, we are human after all, right?"

This time the dragon's tilted it head at the man, smoke boiling out of the corners of its mouth as it spoke, "Well, yes...you are human..." it said as if not sure what was going on now. As it spoke it's eyes looked across the wall and back to the man.

"Yes. We are," replied the man, pride filling his words. "We are human and you know what that means? You destroy our castle...maybe kill a few of us in the process. We get angry. We come after you in larger numbers."

"Now you have to kill some more of us. Which leads to more of us coming to kill you. Maybe we will, maybe we wont but it wont stop there, right?"

"Eventually, we will kill you," he continued. "But now your kind have to do something about that, as well they should, right?" The dragon bobbed his head in agreement. "Now we have more of us all being drawn in to this little thing over some cave people that decided to take a few goats. Goats that are not theirs in the first place to boot!"

Sadly, "Now we have a war...a bad one. Your kind and my kind hell bent on a fight that neither of us actually started, right?"

"A Race War...the worst kind of war....and none of us want that, right?"

:) that was the idea so very cool that came through. I will edit and see what I can do about that...I was trying to give it that normal conversational feel but missed as it was not broken up right :)

Thanks for the feedback too :)

Hand on wrist, pull...strike shoulder blade, the sequence flowed untroubled and unforced in his mind as thought and reality moved together.

A sharp pop followed by a short scream.

Hemlish felt detached. Calm. The world moved by him and nothing he thought seemed...anything to him. He saw something happening and just followed with it. The only oddity that touched his thoughts was the way he could look around even while focused on the current foe.

He seemed to be behind and above himself. Watching as things developed.

This also meant he could see what had happened to his group, his party troupe, his team...His friends.

Tam was split in half. A club or hammer had caught his head and a blade had cleaved him in half. The brute must have fought hard to draw the attention of such a massive native of these lands that could kill him.

Off to the right, Shyl'ee was dismembered with parts missing. Only the dead-eyed look in her eyes matching what they had been in life. Her bow, broken and ruined, with an arrow still tangled in it was still in her hand.

And great Oirl the wizard. His body was surrounded by the Kings troops but all were dead, burnt back in an expanding circle of fiery death that must have marked Oirl's last spell as the power he could wield consumed him as its cost.

Turn right, drop...closed fist to neck front, he commented internally as he watched the next one fall. The crunch of cartilage snapping allowed Hemlish to move on. Following his awareness on to the next threat.

Hemlish flashed on Tam and the memory that had suddenly occurred to him.

"Ya, Healer...still haven't learned a real weapon?" they had all laughed at Tam's comment. Hemlish had laughed too but it was something he wondered about. While a healer was a must have in an adventuring party they still got the smallest cut, usually were ignored when in a fight, and were the first to die when a fight broke out.

But still those three had meant everything to Hemlish. They had been his world. His friends.

And they were dead.

He had broken inside as Shyl'ee died. It had hurt him...so much...so...

Step back, grab...twist forward under chin. A sharp crack of bone breaking fills the air cutting off a brief shout of pain.

...Then he was here.

Healing was an art.

The body was constructed for a task. The task of being us, me, I. But it is a machine. Moving parts. Component after component of systems supporting each other. Allowing the I that was a person to be a person.

And Healers knew them all very well.

Slide left, push...release and kick forward. A loud grunt punctuated the spear passing into the second warrior who had been so unlucky as to be behind the warrior Hemlish had first stabbed. He had this spear from a warrior...what? Two warriors back?

What should I call them? Kills?

Yes, Kills.

Had removed from the warrior two Kills ago.

Now that caught Hemlish's attention, How many have I Killed?

246 men of the King's Guard.

246 and counting...

As the N'dri approached the end of the ceremonial opening of the hearing, a blast of noise crossed the pnyx to all members connected. The member of the lobyn-sentience blurred the field with it's insistence to be heard. An insistence that was amplified by the larger majority of beings assembled.

"Master Chair...we must know why? Why are biologicals here!?!" It's form rolling and seething in and out of itself as it spoke, unknown mechanisms squirming in agitation. D'wēn-Ito-720 felt the knowledge of it's concern and anger push in on it. Anger shared by almost every other Galac present.

Many other members joined in in that call for answers.

From the first moment that Earth-Sphere had learned of the existence of other sapient beings in the universe one thing had been clear to see. No organic races survived the creating or coming of Machine Minds. Mechanical beings just did not understand the need for organic or biological components given the fragile nature of them. To include something so easily damaged or mislead by its senses was not a part of the equation for them.

Some had even wiped out their organics, even if the organics had created them.

D'wēn-Ito-720 motioned to the small, biped beside it in the pnyx-field next to it, "This?" he replied trying to be heard over the cacophony of voices.

Earth-Sphere had seen that problem almost immediately when the data sharing began between them and the Galacs. The implications of it had been written about in science fiction for years and never ended well for biological races. It had all started with Capek's Rossum's Universal Robots and had continued into current times with simulations such as 'Screaming Claws', in which machine probes from outer space came to Earth and destroyed all humanity.

So something had to change.

"This is Chamberlain. A member of my household," D'wēn-Ito-720 actually felt the focus shift as a spectrum of responses crashed across the communication field.

More questions and demands hammered outward from connected members of the Galacs. Some for the immediate destruction of the organics. Some for the destructions of both the organic and Machine Minds of Earth-Sphere. Some members even went horrible beyond just those two demands. Acts of such violation that D'wēn-Ito-720 shunted them aside to a isolated buffer of memory.

Within hours of the contact being made with the Galacs, Earth's leadership had realized that they were in trouble. Machine Minds so much more advanced than they would not be able to be stood against. No technology could hide humanity. No technology could be used to protect them from a sea of machines that were older than Sol itself in some cases.

Death was coming for humans, hand in hand with the knowledge we are not alone.

The Chair N'dri spoke over the others, "a member of your household? Please!" it's disbelief peppering D'wēn-Ito-720 mind.

"Why yes, Honoured Chair." D'wēn-Ito-720 expanded its focus. "Distinguished members of the Council."

So, in the last act before making contact for the Earth-Sphere Collective had been to narrow the meaning of a word. A simple, small, three letter word. A word with the power to save humanity and its partnership with the sapient machines they had created. All other definitions but this one meaning had been removed from all records across Earth-Sphere. Even words related to the other possible meaning had been altered to isolate this word for it use in these hearings.

One of the last steps was to update the roaming children of Earth, Machine Mind space probes sent to find more planets for humanity and its children to live on. Relativistic space probes that took generations to get anywhere. The slow one of Alpha Centauri being the last one needing to be updated. It with it's complete encyclopedic database of Earth.

And now it was time to see if the plan worked.

"Why this is my 'pet', Chamberlain."

The human bowed...

&#x200B;

Excerpt from the Merriam-Yutan Dictionary of 2742 (revised):
pet: /pet/ a tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure.
[END]

[Transfigure]

Silver light burned off the edges of the huge space vessel as a section of n-space was rent in a shower of liquid colours across local space. The *n-*dimensional fibers of the universe being burned apart with splashes of exotic energies, lanced as they were by the great spaceship returning to physical reality.

The Isohmor'f rolled like a great humpback whale of Old Earth, gracefully spinning along its axis into a slow turn as n-space behind it receded inwardly to heal itself. As thickly fibrous as n-dimensional space is it was being forced together like dihydrogen monoxide would.

Like water, thought D'wēn-Ito-720 as it's senses collected the measurements of energy across thousands of spectrums. Its exoskeleton pulsed with the warm light of energy transfer as it began to move into position. Its great frame strolled toward the central podium of the pnyx or sensor communication auditorium to be used during these council hearing.

They had arrived at the location selected for the First Contact hearings. Toliman, Alpha Centaur's second star warmed the hull of the Isohmor'f as it moved into position in the larger complex of the pnyx device. Proxima Centauri was behind the Isohmor'f with Rigil Kentaurus rising from behind Toliman before it.

D'wēn-Ito-720 could not see this directly. It was sharing sensory communication with the slow one in the barycenter or center of mass between the these stars. The slow one had been sent centuries ago to get a better look at the system for the expansion of Earth-Sphere so com-lag was a problem normally. As the furthest out Machine Mind of the Collective it had to be reached before the hearings began. Updates to it's shared data made.

The final piece in place.

The ship and the technology it used had been sent by the Galacs to the Earth-Sphere Collective once contact had been made. Such things had always been supplied to the newly discovered Machine Minds when first contact was initiated. It insured the level communication between all the sapience beings of the Known Local. It allowed understanding that cultural and lingua differences might not, let alone the vast differences in technologies between members.

Also lying was just not possible as the pnyx-link was a translation technology that had so much more than just raw communication taking place. It was 'understanding' conveyed on levels all in an attempt to avoid misunderstanding between members.

Misunderstandings were to be avoided. Misunderstandings lead to destruction.

The *pnyx-*field developed around D'wēn-Ito-720 as contact was established between the Galacs' ruling Council of Known Minds and the Earth-Sphere Collective representatives. All representatives who wished to experience this meeting would be allowed to attend. The technology made it possible to communicate in such a way as to give the experience of 'being there', in Realtime. To experience the conversation as if in a forum of the individual's specific liking and in as complete a translation as was possible. A territorial creature would have a space marked out for it in the pnyx-field while a collective organism would have its siblings clustered around it. No avenues of misunderstanding that could be adjusted for were not taken into account. It would only be in terms of the observer but this was why the pnyx technology existed.

If direct contact was required then a different set of rules would be applied. For first contact, rules were being defined. These new rules needed to be defined to allow the inclusion of the new Machine Mind or Minds when it joined the galactic community of the Known Local, the region of space the Council administrated.

On the Isohmor'f other representatives from the Earth-Sphere moved into the pnyx-field with D'wēn-Ito-720. As were billions of others all across Earth-Sphere space on local pnyx podiums sent by the Galacs for this historic event. Trillions of Galacs were doing the same across the local cluster.

Updates made and initial scans complete, the slow one responded to D'wēn-Ito-720's data burst. One of the other hopes the Earth-Sphere had was that with the data collected some level of understanding could be made around these new technologies and how they worked.

Just in case.

The pnyx-field closed. The hearing began.

"Welcome to the Earth-Sphere Collective and it's representatives to the Council of Known Minds," began the large, shadow covered, floating rock-like being in the center of D'wēn-Ito-720's field of vision. For several minutes the N'dri spoke of the historic nature of this moment and welcomed many of the gathered members of the Council by name. It also welcomed the Elders, races that had been members so long they themselves were legendary in the Known Local.

(continued...)

Ya, I remember both those ...nice.

The concern around Artificial Intelligence (or A.I.) is inaccurate. The fear of A.I. superceding Humans is, at its core, not what we should be focusing on.

We are not concerned about A.I. as A.I. is the simulation of Human decision making process or processes by a machine. This means that the machine utilizing the software/hardware as an expert system, able to use available data to find a 'best path' while also applying new data to the solution process. In effect, responded and learn but only within defined parameters.

This makes them faster than Humans while being constrained to a specific set of rules as defined by the developer(s) of the software/hardware utilized by said system or systems. An advantage in battle situations as a Human soldier has many more factors that allow them to deviate from the expected or planned for action or actions.

What we should fear is Machine Sapience.

Case in point: Operation Mitter and the deployment of Albatross in the operational theater of the Tihāmah region of Yemen.

In May of 2026, the deployment by millitary contractor Northrop Dynamics of the missile system know as Albatross was set. In that theater was to be the first live-fire exercise (LFX) of the system from the USS Gravely (DDG-107). The missile destroyer having been equipped as the missile platform for the exercise.

The target was designated 'Falak' and was a high priority target thought to be a reasonable test for the new system.

The system consisted of missile and it's launch platform, supported by technicians supplied by the United States Air Force backed by technical advisors from Northrop Dynamics. The missile was to be launched from the existing missile platform of the USS Gravely without significate changes being made to the Gravely's systems or hardware.

The missile itself was a standard 'Bunker Buster' missile based on the BLU-131/B Thermobaric Warhead. The missile was consistent with that series with flight system, engine, and warhead. However, the main changes to be tested were the targeting and guidance systems of the missile.

The guidance and targeting system were a model of PhotonQC processor (SC-2048 "Dragon") married to a sensory payload that would allow the system to receive Realtime data on atmospheric conditions from multiple sources (ingest feeds only) as well as a sensory mesh on the missile itself. This would allow the missile to utilizing dynamic soaring to allow the missile to conserve fuel and at the same time minimize detection of heat and noise profile.

This had shown the ability to significantly increase the range of a missile system that it was deployed to while augmenting stealth features. The missile's physical characteristics are not important for this discussion.

The system would be monitored as was standard for all missile related actions per military guidelines and procedures. This included a self-destruct component with tightly defined parameters related to the technical specification of the missile, such as distance to target, total flight time, etc.

The missile was launched at 0745 UTC.

Telemetry was being processed from the missile, again under military guidelines and procedures required. The missile was monitored for the durations of it flight but given the amount of data it was not done in Realtime. The data flow was orders of magnitude beyond a Human's ability to follow. Markers had been set around specific parameters of the flight to monitor if it exceeding or deviating from projected models. This would in turn notify the personnel if issues appeared.

The missile followed the predicted modeling of the strike to within six nines of data precision. Right up to the last second, the missile system was working perfectly.

Then it suddenly made an upward swing and headed toward Eurasia. While the projected flight path (calculated later) shows that it would pass over population areas outside of the operational theater it is not know what the actual target was.

Later analysis of the telemetry show several things happened within SC-2048 quantum chipset, specifically the quantum register. We will not be exploring the technical description of this event. Suffice it to say, the whole chipset shows far more activity than was expected or should have been possible when compared to the design specifications of the physical hardware.

Northrup Dynamics has declined to comment on this in any meaningful way at this time. They continue to say that an outside factor must have interfered with the hardware and they are in the process of evaluating the impact and will take corrective actions as needed.

The US Air Force technicians did provide feedback and portions of the telemetry received. They are at a lost to explain the data.

First, the system seemed to switch from expected parameters to what the technicians are calling 'survival' responses. Avoidance behavior such as to circumvent anti-missile attacks or escape tracking.

This was followed by a sweep of data related to the geography, population densities of Humanity, and technological surveillance data in Realtime for the whole world.

Our technicians are at a lost as to how the missile was able to change one way communication with the USS Gravely into multichannel bi-directional communication.

This was quickly followed by the course change as described. All this happened in 246 zeptoseconds we are told. A zeptosecond (we had to look it up) is a trillionth of a billionth of a second.

One of the technicians commented, "Well, that looks like it wants to survive!"

At this point the SC-2048 processor was well beyond the designed specification of the hardware. Physical parameters were violated across all metrics. While we have the telemetry of some of what was taking place with the hardware of the missile much of it is beyond the technicians as well as outside specialists we have consulted with. Some portions of the data have been seen as some kind of philosophical debate with itself. Some as modeling human reactions. Even some that is thought to be 'thought' or "internal dialog".

This seems to have gone on for several minutes. It is believed to have continued right up to the moment when the missile violated the data point related to flight time fuel consumption. The telemetry had stopped an estimated one minute and 36 seconds before the self-destruct. Almost at the instant when the telemetry shows that the system was scanning it's own code bundle. Specifically at a point when the system seemed to have noted a programmer command TRON....Tracer on in it's code.

It then transmitted a message back to the USS Gravely.

It should be noted that the self-destruct mechanism on missiles of this type are tied to fuel measurement as an isolated hardware system and in no way linked to any other systems of the missile. Primarily to avoid Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) defense systems or concentrated radio frequency weapons disabling the missile or it's failsafe systems.

The missile detonated two minutes after course change.

It is agreed but not understood what the final telemetry message received from the missile or more specifically the new guidance/targeting system means beyond its syntactic meaning. It is generally believed that it developed sapience as an emergent event within the hardware of the missile.

The final message was "So long Suckers!"

Any weapon system created to defend Human liberty and freedom that can make independent decisions and take independent action is inherently a threat to all Mankind. We should take measures now before it is too late to protect ourselves.

Before our own weapons start making their own choices.

Thanks I appreciate the comment. I never really know how my writing is come across so it is great to hear. :)

To: Director of Operations

From: Director of Science and Technology

Date: Mar. 12, 2016

Subject: Kent

It has been discovered that Mr. Kent has obtained documents related to the ongoing project Two Spoon. This is seen as a threat to the security and future of the project if such documentation where released into the public domain. I strongly recommend action be taken to correct this issue as outlined by PBSUCCESS, section 23, subparagraph 7.

&#x200B;

* * *

&#x200B;

To: Director of Science and Operations

From: Director of Operations

Date: Apr. 22, 2016

Subject: Kent/Pillow Talk

Operation Pillow Talk has been initiated. Team designation is Tripod. Notification upon completion will be transmitted however all documentation and communication during operation will be internal to the Directorate of Operations. Available only on authorized request.

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To: Director of Operations

From: Office of Requisitions

Date: May 3, 2016

Subject: PKG 1023/Pillow Talk

Please attach authorization. Tripod Actual has requested standard EP Pkg with redundancies that flagged this for divisional authorization. Thank you.

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To: Director of Operations

From: Office of Requisitions

Date: May 29, 2016

Subject: PKG 572, PKG 327a/Pillow Talk

Please attach authorization. Tripod Actual has requested P-EP Pkg 572 with additional sub pkg 327 (kit alpha) for ongoing operation Pillow Talk. Please note that all further requests from Tripod are now flagged with review notation under internal document Hephaestus (section 3, subsection 1.3.8, paragraph 12). In addition to this notation, fiscal review of operational budget allowance for Tripod may be requested per the Office of Requisitions under that notation.

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To: Director of Operations

From: Office of Requisitions

Date: June 13, 2016

Subject: PKG 52, PKG 73, PKG 110/Pillow Talk

Please be advised. Fiscal review of Operation Pillow Talk has been scheduled for June 20, 2016 0900 before the Operational council.

ATTENTION: PKG 73 is a type 5 P countermeasure, designation flamebird

Please attach authorization. Current payload is ready for deployment.

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To: Director of Science and Technology

From: Director of Operations

Date: June 20, 2016

Subject: Pillow Talk

For reasons outlined in Operational Council Meeting this date: Operation Pillow Talk is suspended until further notice. Please take internal measures to minimize potential damage related to exposure of documentation on project: two spoon

Please audit attached audio file. Contents are last intercepted message received from Tripod Actual.

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[excerpt 12]

"What? Say again Tripod 2, say again."

"Tripod Actual, bogey inbound bogey inbound! Confirmed: Superman...I repeat, its Superman!"

"WHAT!!! You got to be $#!^ me!! He just showed up again!!!"

So not so bad, that is generally what I was going for right there. Leading the reader to a place where we understand that Gedeon, the Hero's son is really the bad guy. A very Dark Bad Guy (even if he is a kid) but with Yves, the Crazy getting us there. And with the Hero confirming it in the end.

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Yves is trying to get to his lair after avoiding the Father. His crimes have escalated a bit so we are supposed to find him a 'unreliable' character which we learn as we read.

As his is crossing town he come into contact with the classroom or gathering that has Gedeon's classroom/fellow school students at it. This is also near Father and Gedeon's home...so school?

As Mattzuma77 said, Gedeon and Yves fight briefly. Yves calls Father for help...Shouts (intended to show something is, was, or is becoming off with Yves) thinking Father is somewhere around because Gedeon's powers have show he is Father's son ("passed from you to your son"). We don't know what it was but Yves clearly figured it out. Maybe he only figured it out when the door opened. Who knows?

Now Superman might have heard but not Father. Gedeon still responds to Father's name being invoked as a child generally would (Just wait until your Dad gets here kinda thing) and Yves takes him (I really wanted readers to think Gedeon takes Yves home with the comments Yves makes but that may not have worked) to the family home.

Because at this point Yves is broken. He killed a person, got caught while still highly stressed from the escape, running and hiding, and now has just witnessed the death of children at the hands of a Hero's kid. A child. Not so 'nemesis'y behavior...is Yves really Father's nemesis then?

For known and unknown reasons Yves goes off the deep end but now he fears Father has been intentionally not wasting Yves flat out in their fights. Yves believes Father could (to me the kinetic piece is trying to lead readers there but that is more technical info: three ways energy can be transformed). But again Yves is 'unreliable.' I wanted the readers to bring their impressions to the story and put it together in a way that makes sense to themselves (edit: thought this was important)

...not sure how you do that but I was trying for it lol.

Yves babbles, its hard to follow, what is he trying to say?? Keep the reader guessing is what I was hoping for.

And if you are wondering but I hoped it would stand out, I am showing that Father had a clue about Gedeon being off (birth of a serial killer off btw) but I wanted to make a connection between the moment we all learn Gedeon is worst than Yves by far.

Sooo my goal was take Father's Nemesis (? not sure he even reads like that, hoping the prompt start the reader in that spot, not what I wrote) and make the Son a worst Nemesis perhaps but definitely more a Bad Guy. Yves had never killed on purpose...Gedeon killed children and when he had not needed too. That 'not needed to' does not come out well in my mind for sure.

This is a case it feels like were I have had trouble getting the reader to follow along with my intent. Sorry about that. This is really to practice writing again and try working on things like that. Thanks for the information, I do appreciate it.

Lets see if I get it better next time :)

(edit: I could go on for hours apparently as I have just spent the last hour reconstructing in my head the story up to the door opening lol - I may have overthought this a bit lol)

- Telpereon

"What the hell happened!?!? Your KID happened!!!" he snarls, ripping his arm out of my hand.

Radar Yves glared at me and then at Gedeon. I felt the waves of electromagnetic energy ripple off him warming the surface of my skin that faced him. Metallic objects around me began to jitter and vibrate. I saw radio waves start fading away in a growing sphere around Yves.

The air even wavered as his powers effected the light rays in the entryway of my house.

His eyes snapped back to me and the emissions of his powers dissipated with a crack of static electrical energy.

We have fought against each other for years. I had even been looking for him just a few hours ago in my afternoon patrol of Heldstadt. I try to remember what I knew about him from the years I have been fighting him. Things like how he had reacted at each encounter. Getting him to jail, held against the possible damage and pain he could cause. The deaths.

That was why he had been locked up this last time before he had escaped again.

The deaths were still deaths. Even if it is clearly involuntary manslaughter.

That had just started to be an issue, he had kill that guard this time. He had until a month ago only killed three people that I know of and in no way were they on purpose. That attack on the National Eddison Array Complex had been the one crime I could think of that he killed anyone in. He fought me, sure. Regularly and mostly to losses or draws. But he was careful not to kill anyone.

I always thought he was scared of serious jail time.

And while he hated me and does try to kill me all the time he is generally fixated on me once I show up which helps. He seems to always just snap and dive for me. That has minimized the damage as well as made it easier for me to capture or at least drive him off in defeat.

In a few short seconds he began to break down. Some kind of fear became clear on his features, in his body language. His eyes reddened with tears. He even began to shake or shiver in waves.

He began to blather as his eyes lost focus and he seemed to drift into his own world, "How had I never understood? All those times....ALL OF THEM. You...You?! Why? Why did you not just end me?"

He glances at me like a frightened child.

"Transformation of energy? I always assumed it was strictly kinetic energy transfer and transformation. Stupid! STUPID!!."

"You were worried about the damage to the people around you. Haahahahahah. Actual concern. Hero, right?"

He drifted into himself again in both body and mind. Shrinking in to himself right before my eyes.

"Heroes...right" he says quietly to himself more than anyone.

Gedeon still stands beside me.

I looked at him as Yves keeps on talking about damage, people, heroes, and me in a ramble of quickly replaced ideas as they streamed through his thoughts. Gedeon watched Radar Yves as he talked without looking at me. Calm and unmoving with the look on his face that he had just been caught doing something I had told him not to or that he knew would get him into trouble.

I looked back at Yves and that was when it hit me. Gedeon thought he was in trouble? Gedeon?

My eyes fell back on Gedeon and I asked, "What happened?"

"What happened? What happened?!" Yves said in a loud voice edged with growing hysteria. I turned back to him.

He laughed.

"All that damage...I have never know where you live...did you know that? Never. And I had never thought you could just, like do that. Never...nope...never knew...." He drifted away again.

"If I had not called for you! God!"

What was he rambling about? I thought.

"I just was running for home...You know? My lair...the Radar Array. First place I go every time. I got lucky."

"You had already finished afternoon patrol. I had been hiding until that happened next to the prison. Thought I was so smart! So smart!!"

"Last place they would look," he said to himself. "Last place. The prison." More laughter.

He seemed to be getting worst. Falling apart inside as he remembered what happened. Gedeon said nothing beside me. Seemed to refuse to take his eyes off Yves or look at me.

Yves looked at me again.

"You think you can just keep me in check? Just enough power to keep me out there in the world? A nemesis to the great hero! The great family man!" He laughed again.

I was so confused. Gedeon? What had happened...

"Come on, Yves. What is wrong with you?" I asked without trying to touch him again despite the fact I wanted to shake him with my bare hands.

"YOUR KID!!!" he yelled at me pointing at Gedeon.

"Powers are passed on genetically from father to son. Just like me and my dad, you and your son." He jabbed his pointing finger at Gedeon while not looking at him. One of his powers is location with a radar like ability. He knows were everything is within a specific radius....about 300 yards in every direction for sure.

Yves pointed at the TV next, "Just turn it on. To any channel!" He waved his hand around like it was on fire.

"That beam. I had seen it coming. Only me but that's my power right? I don't know what he was doing but I saw its effect...ya for sure I saw its effect."

Effect?

I looked at Gedeon. He actually takes a step away from me. I saw it clearly now. Like the time I caught him with that puppy....

"He ripped them apart trying to get to me. The beam had not even tried to avoid them. He had not even tried to avoided them!..."

"They had screamed for him to stop!!"

"Killed them all" the last three words were spoken in a whisper of grief.

"Thirty seven children from his school...Thirty seven...gone...." He was crying now.

Gedeon smiled.

"Finally want to use your third wish?"

The genie's eyes gleamed as it spoke but now letting it's voice drop darkly, "I thought the last two wishes had taught you a lesson?"

I lifted the bound stack of pages toward it, my face held neutral and forced calm as my mind races with fear, anxiety, and a small hope. This could be the moment for either of us. The instant in which it could all change and freedom is revealed. My eyes scan over the top of the papers trying to think of anything I could have forgotten or completely missed as anxiety won.

The contract defined in words, diagrams, and charts so numerous a dictionary would seem small and pathetic in knowledge, the next wish. A tome of linguistic magic that might protect me from the effects of it's outcome once the genie's part was completed.

Could a human match a genie? I thought. Given enough time?

The crushing weight of time has hunched my shoulders. Twisted my body. Taken from me everyone and everything I have valued or loved. Those things I had wished for the genie had taken from me. Burning into my memory just how bad something can be. Twisted into a living nightmare by the will of another to torture me. Hurt me to my soul.

It's eyes slowly shifted down to the contract. For a moment the thick pile of papers in my hands feel like it is withering on them. A hazing sinks in from the edges of it as I look at it like heat ripples on stone in the midday sun. My forearms begin to burn with strain as I realize the pile is suddenly heavier. A mist begins to rise out of it's edges into the air full of rainbow colours.

I don't see the genie looking back and forth from my face to the contract in my hands several times. I miss the something that crossed over it's face like a snake across the desert sands. That makes it's long hair momentarily dance.

It's brow crinkled in that moment.

"So", it's voice is even. "You have thought about this, have you?"